too bad, he was your only worthy opponent here. no big deal during the windy season, but I hope he comes back for winter, your little fights can be very enlightening on many subjects for the rest of us in the shadows...

As far as the anti-British thing, I think it's a bit of a stretch to take it that far. In reality, everybody carries some style and attitude from where they grew up. That can be said about the different regional areas of the US too. Even in the different regional areas of the UK, a relatively small area, the folks and their manners can be quite varied.

Whether mrgybe wants to admit it, he does have decidedly British style when communicating, and I have to say that I enjoy reading his well written posts, even though they don't necessarily square with my outlook at times. But I wouldn't be honest if I didn't find that many of his posts included condescending elements. I've seen very similar stuff on international windsurf forums, like the Boards and the Starboard forums. In fact, until the Starboard forum was revised to respect named posters, there were folks posting pretending to be me and saying totally outrageous things. From their style, I could tell that they were of British origin.

But I do understand that it's hard to change one's learned style, and that often humor and wit can be taken the wrong way, particularly if it comes from another culture. In recognition of societal differences and regional styles in communication, I'm willing to give mrgybe some reasonable leeway, and I would hope he feels similarly.

To further explore the subject matter of the original post, the NY times today,(Sun. 6/20) had an interesting piece in the week in review section titled "A night at the electronics factory" about this very factory, sort of a day in the life of. I couldn't get the url link to work, but you can access the article from nytimes.com, opinion section, then do a search on the author, David Barboza or the article title above. The article supports my contention that these jobs represent opportunity, at least in the short term, but is also an interesting look inside. The Chinese labor market is changing rapidly. Spontaneous strikes are beginning to occur, labor shortages are beginning to be felt as a negative result of the one child policy, wages are beginning to rise, however slightly. Unrelenting pressure from the US for a floating revaluation of the Yuan makes that seem inevitable. Careful what you wish for on that one, as cheap Chinese products of every description have softened the blow of stagnant wage growth and the chronic yearly erosion of slow inflation on our buying power. Insofar as the alleged "virulent anti British sentiment", of my previous post, that was not my intent. My few visits to England have been wonderfully positive experiences, I'm fascinated by the diversity of regional accents, geography and rich history of such a relatively small country. I will concede I don't "get" the royal thing in this century, neverending grist for Murdoch's tabloids I suppose. No, my intent was to simply point out the annoying nature of the ceaseless repartee (sp?) that one encounters at times with certain individuals, nothing more.

This was news to me until last night. Somehow that iPhone doesn't seem quite so cool now. If it's true, it becomes much clearer how there are so many super rich in Silicon Valley.......they should be ashamed.

"Apple is likely regretting its decision to outsource the manufacture of its iconic iPod media players to Tawainese subcontractor Foxconn, now that a report in the Mail on Sunday has revealed the Dickensian conditions under which its employees work. According to the paper, iPods are built primarily by women who typically put in 15-hour days and earn as little as $50 per month, about half of which is paid back to the company for housing and food. And that’s not the worst of it. “We have to work too hard and I am always tired,” said one Foxconn employee. “It’s like being in the army. They make us stand still for hours. If we move, we are punished by being made to stand still for longer. We have to work overtime if we are told to and can only go back to the dormitories when our boss gives us permission. If they ask for overtime we must do it. After working 15 hours until 11:30 p.m., we feel so tired.” Not the sort of dialogue you’d find in one of Apple’s new “Get a Mac” ads, is it?"

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